Last Wednesday saw the opening of the Musical My Fair Lady, in the Lower School Hall at South Craven School.

Sutton Amateurs capably handled the story of flower girl Eliza Doolittle, who is plucked from poverty and trained to become a lady by the enigmatic Henry Higgins.

The play is full of instantly recognisable songs such as 'Wouldn't it be Lovely', 'I Could Have Danced All Night' and 'Get Me to The Church on Time' and the cast dealt well with a production that has many sometimes tricky and very short scene changes.

Alison Waters handled the role of Eliza with supreme confidence, her excellent singing voice, undoubted talent and obvious enthusiasm for the role, threatening to steal every scene she appeared in.

Gerard Kennedy, as Higgins, coped admirably in his first principal part in a musical and, following a somewhat hesitant start, continued to grow in the role, convincing well as the eccentric and superbly chauvinistic language professor.

Colonel Pickering (Neil Hellewell) provided the foil for Higgins' barbed wit and the two worked well together although Pickering was at times difficult to understand, though this may be attributed to the use of microphones for the first time.

Other notable performances were those of Freddy (Ray Waters), whose powerful singing voice certainly deserves a mention, and David Knights who, despite a shaky start, gave a strong handed performance as Alfred P Doolittle and was especially enthusiastic on the dance numbers.

The performance of all involved improved as the evening progressed, and I'm sure that will continue until the final show tomorrow.

Simon Dilger